Monday, November 11, 2013

The metamorphosis continues .....

When CyberSmokeBlog first encountered Mr. Galati it was as counsel to complainant Alex Chapman at the Douglas Inquiry back in July of 2011. CSB's first name for him was "Don't call me Rocky!" which he doesn't like - subsequently religiously followed given his past prowess as a kick boxer! More recently he has morphed into "The Attitude" followed by "The Monkey Wrench" and now "Goliath The Shin Kicker" resulting from his court challenge to the Harper government's appointment of Supreme Court Justice Marc Nadon.

What could get very interesting is IF he wins what about current Supreme Court Justice Marshall Rothstein appointed from the Federal Court of Appeal? Should he too be shown the door? Imagine Justice Rothstein "hobbling" out of the land's highest court?

The Toronto lawyer is teaming up with the Constitutional Rights Centre Incorporated to challenge the legality of the Prime Minister's latest appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Considering most lawyers won't even venture an anonymous comment on the controversial choice of Justice Marc Nadon, Mr. Galati is out there on the legal field of battle alone.

Justice Nadon, 64, a semi-retired judge from the Federal Court of Appeal, was nominated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on September 30 to fill one of three seats reserved for Quebec on the top court.

What had been a surprise nomination of a little-known jurist became a cause celebre when Mr. Galati filed an application to challenge the selection.

And while the focus has been on Justice Nadon's Quebec-specific qualifications, Mr. Galati in an interview made the case that no Federal Court judge should be appointed to the Supreme Court.

"They are trying to open the back door to stack the court with Federal Court judges," Mr. Galati said.

He'll be making that argument to, among others, Justice Marshall Rothstein who was a Federal Court of Appeal judge before being appointed to the top court by Mr. Harper in March, 2006.

Mr. Galati argues that the Supreme Court was designed to reflect the country by appointing judges and lawyers representing different regions.

Section 6 of The Supreme Court Act lays out specific rules with regard to Quebec's three Supreme Court representatives. But Mr. Galati will argue that by convention the court has also included three judges from Ontario, one from British Columbia, one from the Prairies and one from Atlantic Canada.

"You can see how a government can stack a court by taking people they've appointed to their own Federal Court for 20 years," he said. "It's court stacking, judge stacking."

The fact that three previous Federal Court denizens (although none from Quebec) have served on the Supreme Court, including Justice Rothstein, is not the point, says the lawyer.